Multidisciplinary Treatment Planning Questionnaire

Background

Multidisciplinary care, which incorporates Multidisciplinary Treatment
Planning (MTP), is increasingly being adopted within oncology care settings with
the intent of enhancing the quality of care delivered to patients. However, what
is not known is its impact on improving patient outcomes and the quality of care
being delivered. A targeted review of the literature was conducted to examine
the organization and operation of the Multidisciplinary Care (MDC) team
structure1. Findings revealed
that a variety of implementation models exist within the health care system.
However, almost no research exists that describes the various models, examines
how cancer specialists work together as clinical teams to provide prospective
care planning with the patient, or investigates how the models vary by
environmental context and characteristics of the clinical specialties
represented on the MDC teams. Hence, the NCI developed a questionnaire to
assess multidisciplinary treatment planning within cancer care settings.

Purpose & Scope

The purpose of the Multidisciplinary Treatment Planning questionnaire is to
gain insight into the variety of ways in which multidisciplinary treatment
planning is structured and implemented for different types of cancers within
care delivery organizations. The questionnaire can help to:

ascertain the prevalence of MTP teams for cancer;

characterize how these teams are defined, organized and function; and

describe the variety of MTP structures and processes.

An expert review by community physicians and two rounds of cognitive
interviews with Cancer Liaison Physicians at hospitals accredited by the
American College of Surgeons, Commission on Cancer were conducted. Questionnaire
items include MTP structure and support, case presentation, clinical trials,
patient engagement, compensation, and incentives. The instrument is designed to
understand MTP structures and processes in a care delivery setting for one type
of cancer within each surveyed hospital.

Use

The first use of this questionnaire is by the Commission on Cancer (CoC) to
understand multidisciplinary treatment planning within CoC-accredited hospitals.
The MTP questionnaire (PDF, 172 KB) is available for use by
organizations and individual researchers. Please acknowledge the National
Cancer Institute/Multidisciplinary Treatment Planning Questionnaire if you use
this instrument in your research.